Petty officer accused of making porn videos

Petty officer accusedof making porn videos NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A Navy petty officer is accused of making pornographic home videos with a 16-year-old girl and another sailor, police said. Jessie Oldfield, 20, is charged with first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to court papers. He is a student at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station's nuclear power training unit. Oldfield was being held on $100,000 bail. A call to North Charleston police was not immediately returned Saturday; it was unclear whether Oldfield had retained a lawyer or was facing other charges. The other sailor in the video is on active duty in another state, authorities said. Police also confiscated two additional tapes and are trying to identify other sailors involved in sexual activity with the girl and two unidentified 16-year-olds who performed striptease acts. Mike Steinberg, a Naval Weapons Station spokesman, said Saturday he did not know whether the station was considering expelling Oldfield. According to an arrest affidavit, Oldfield acted as video producer, filming the sex acts and directing the girls on the three tapes recorded between July and September. Police said the girls on the tapes appear intoxicated. A tape was discovered by the girl's father after she left it in his video camera, police said. Her parents turned over the tapes to police Thursday. Irish voters split overchanges to abortion law DUBLIN, Ireland -- Irish voters are split over proposed legal changes that would ease the country's constitutional ban on abortion, according to an opinion poll published Saturday. Thirty-nine percent of respondents to the Irish Times/Market Research Bureau of Ireland study supported the proposals, while 34 percent were opposed. An additional 21 percent said they had no opinion and 6 percent said they would not vote in a referendum on the changes. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's government must hold a referendum, possibly in the spring, on a bill that would allow doctors to terminate pregnancies when women's lives were at risk. Ahern has said the bill is designed to reconcile conflicting demands in the country's constitution, which bars all abortions, and a 1992 Supreme Court judgment that abortion should be permitted when a woman might otherwise die. The proposed law would allow doctors to terminate pregnancies if the woman's life was considered at risk, except in instances of threatened suicide. Pollsters interviewed about 1,500 people across Ireland in person during January. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points. Thatcher believedto have had stroke LONDON -- Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has suffered what was believed to be a minor stroke, her daughter said Saturday. Carol Thatcher told the British Broadcasting Corp. that her mother, now Baroness Thatcher, fell ill while vacationing abroad over the New Year holiday. She said the incident had been "very, very minor" and that Thatcher, 76, was "concerned ... but not desperately worried." The Times newspaper reported Saturday that Thatcher became ill while celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary with husband Denis on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Thatcher spent two days in a hospital on Madeira after developing coordination problems and slurred speech but had made a full recovery, the newspaper said, without citing sources. The Times did not say exactly when Thatcher fell ill. Her anniversary was Dec. 13, but she was in England that day. Checkup for Dalai Lama GAYA, India -- The Dalai Lama, who has been complaining of abdominal pain and exhaustion, will be flown to Bombay today for a medical checkup after doctors found a lump in his stomach, his spokesman said Saturday. The decision was made after a team of doctors examined the Tibetan spiritual leader in a Buddhist monastery in Bodhgaya, where he had been staying since last week, said Masood Butt, his press coordinator. A member of the medical team, A.M. Rai, said the Dalai Lama had a lump in his stomach, but gave no further details. He was to be admitted to Leelavati Hospital in Bombay today, Butt told The Associated Press. On Thursday, the Dalai Lama postponed his teachings before tens of thousands of followers at a special service. He said he would not be able to finish the rituals, which require him to sit still for at least five hours. Associated Press

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